In India, coronavirus pandemic brings neglect for women with disabilities and chronic illnesses

The 28-year-old resident of Gurugram, in North India’s Haryana state, has been living with complex regional pain syndrome – a rare neurological disorder characterised by intense bouts of agony – for almost seven years now, but since March has been unable to access the treatment she could before India’s coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Mahajan, who is a dentist, used to have her medical needs met at a private hospital she would attend every week or two, but restrictions on interstate travel – which India only began to lift in June – have prevented her doctor, who lives in New Delhi, from reaching the facility. Not only that, but coronavirus restrictions also mean that many hospitals in the country are turning away patients with compromised immune systems, out of fear that they may contract the virus and add to the more than 58,000 people who have succumbed to Covid-19 in India so far.